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The River Murray and wider Murray-Darling Basin are experiencing the most severe drought in recorded history, with record low inflows into the main storages and the river.
As part of the response to this emergency, the Prime Minister and Premiers Mike Rann, Morris Iemma and Steve Bracks released a joint statement on 20 April 2007 which indicated, among other things, that industrial users of water from the River Murray system should be required to adopt stringent water savings measures and that major users should be required to develop water efficiency plans incorporating industry best practice water efficiency targets from 1 July 2007.
Industrial use of water means water used not only for conventional industrial purposes such as processing, production, manufacturing and smelting, but also for commercial and business purposes, institutions such as schools and hospitals, construction, mining, aquaculture and intensive animal farming. Government agencies will have to comply with these requirements.
The South Australian Government acted on these measures and SA Water sites using more than 50 Megalitres per annum were targeted under this initiative.
Water for Good – the State’s plan to ensure our water future to 2050 has since expanded the initiative to include sites that use greater than 25 Megalitres per annum. Therefore all individual sites that use more than 25 Megalitres per annum will be required to complete a Water Efficiency Plan.
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